Penn State defeated SMU 38-10 on Saturday afternoon in State College to advance to the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff.
It’s a triumphant victory for the Nittany Lions, who will now advance to face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
For SMU, though, it’s a crushing performance that ends what was otherwise a historic season for the Mustangs. Here are 3 takeaways from this result for SMU:
Kevin Jennings’ first-half collapse cost SMU a shot
There’s no sugar-coating it: Kevin Jennings’ disaster first half cost SMU a shot at competing with the Nittany Lions in this game. His 3 interceptions in the first half were immediately converted into 21 points by the Nittany Lions, including 2 pick-6s.
But his mistakes began even before his flurry of turnovers. On SMU’s first drive of the game, the Mustangs faced a 4th and 1in the red zone. Rhett Lashlee dialed up a play action boot and Jennings appeared to have enough space to run for the first down. Instead, he threw the ball into the end zone toward an open receiver. Unfortunately, SMU wasn’t able to come down with, leading to a turnover on downs.
Each of Jennings’ interceptions were back-breaking for the Mustangs. Two were returned for touchdowns while the other happened just as SMU was operating in the red zone again, ending one of its best scoring chances of the day.
SMU’s red zone offense failed at the wrong time
While turnovers were a massive issue for the Mustangs, so was their performance in the red zone. SMU scored just 3 total points on its first 4 trips into the red area, which ultimately doomed any chance of a potential comeback in State College.
SMU’s first 4 red zone trips resulted in a turnover on downs, an interception and 2 field goal attempts (but only 1 make). The Mustangs were largely able to move the ball between the 20s, but ball security and inefficiencies in the red zone prevented any further damage from being done until Jennings finally found the end zone with a touchdown pass to Roderick Daniels with 7:31 remaining in the game (and even that TD was from slightly outside of the red zone).
SMU was great in the red zone all season, so the mishaps on Saturday were uncharacteristic of what could normally be expected from this team. SMU converted over 67% of its red zone opportunities into touchdowns during the regular season, which ranked 6th amongst ACC teams.
SMU’s run defense didn’t hold up
Aside from all the issues offensively, there was another big reason why the Mustangs weren’t competitive in this game: rushing defense.
SMU entered this game with the 3rd-best rush defense (on a per-play basis) in the country, but Penn State was largely able to control the line of scrimmage on offense. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen both rushed for over 6 yards per carry.
Only 2 running backs rushed for at least 70 yards on SMU all season — a feat that both members of Penn State’s backfield accomplished in this win. Prior to this, SMU had also only allowed 1 running back all year to eclipse 6 yards per carry (on a minimum of 10 attempts). Singleton and Allen both reached that threshold in this win.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
